2010-09-30

More Ads That Write Themselves

[Bring Ken Buck in to minimalist stage]

You've seen the ads--Michael Bennett and his out-of-state friends with very deep pockets attacking me in ways that local media have described as "misleading" and "deceptive."And that's okay--I'm a big boy and I can take their smears. And you have to understand why they've taken that tactic: because they'll do anything to distract you from Michael Bennett's record as a Senator.He doesn't want you to remember that even though you were clearly against it, he voted FOR a bailout of financial institutions; he doesn't want you to remember that even though you were clearly against it, he voted FOR the so-called "Stimulus Plan" that has failed to stem the tide of job losses all around the country; and he really doesn't want you to remember that even though you were against it, he cast the deciding vote that saddled Americans with a $1 trillion health care overhaul that is already starting to drive costs up and insurers out of business.For a guy who claims that Washington is broken, he sure seems eager to give Washington all the money and power to solve all of YOUR problems.I'll be a different kind of Senator. I agree that Washington is broken, which is why when I'm Senator I'll do everything in my power to cut it off from your pocketbook. I'll push for legislation that stimulates JOBS, not bureaucrats, and I'll stop the expansion of the federal government beyond the boundaries that the Constitution allows.You see, I've learned something living and working in Colorado: when Americans are turned loose to exercise their ingenuity and realize their dreams through their industry, there is no problem too big for us to solve. And the less Washington intrudes on your life, the freer you will be to take care of the causes and people you care about in the manner that you see fit.Together, we can restore this economy, create jobs, and put this country back on the road of financial stability. I hope you'll cast your ballot for me, Ken Buck, on November 2nd.Thank you.or something like that. . .

2010-09-24

Way to Go, Conservatives

Hey, guess who spent the most money to get Dan Maes as the gubernatorial nominee? That's right! The far Left:

Small businessman Dan Maes won the GOP nomination after Colorado Freedom Fund ran television ads in the two weeks before the Aug. 10 primary slamming former congressman Scott McInnis for plagiarizing a series of papers on water policy. McInnis ended up losing to Maes by 5,150 votes out of 390,108 cast. . . .

The most recently filed campaign records from Colorado Freedom Fund indicate that the Democratic Governors Association donated $150,000, while wealthy Colorado philanthropist Pat Stryker gave $108,000. The SEIU Small Donor Committee gave $200,000 and the Public Education Committee, an education union, gave $150,000. Two other groups gave $5,000 each to the committee.

Brilliant strategy, and it worked. Well, that and the weak candidacy of the patently phony Scott McInnis.

In other words: Way to Go, Conservatives: You Got Played.

You can congratulate yourselves on your ideological purity on the morning of November 3rd when you awake to find a Democrat Governor, a Democrat legislature ('cuz now all of Pat Stryker's money can be spent lying about our legislative candidates), 4 or 5 out of 7 or 8 Congressional districts in Dem hands and Michael Bennett as your Senator.

Ads That You Would Think Would Write Themselves

"When Congress contemplated the so-called Stimulus Bill, it was promised that unemployment would remain below 8 percent. Even so, you opposed the $787 boondoggle [visual of series of polls]. In spite of that, Ed Perlmutter voted FOR the Stimulus. Today, unemployment stands at 9.6%, with no new jobs in sight.

"When Congress contemplated Cap-and-Trade legislation that would drive the cost of a gallon of gas through the roof and drive even more jobs out of Colorado, you opposed it [more visuals of polls] but Ed Perlmutter voted FOR it.

"When Congress contemplated a Health Care overhaul that would cost $1 trillion over the next 15 years, you opposed that, as well [more visuals] . Ed Perlmutter voted FOR it. Now we find out that this legislation will drive up premiums and force many employers to drop their health plans.

"Ed Perlmutter. He may be our neighbor. But his voice is more like Nancy Pelosi's"

2010-09-19

In Defense of "9/12"

Yeah, that's me in the Letters to the Editor of the Denver Post this morning. The Post had to edit out quite a bit, and quite a bit of what got edited was what I considered to be pretty important, so here is the full text:

On September 10, as Ed notes in his curmudgeonly fashion, unemployment was low, the economy appeared strong, and our military posture around the world was, shall we say, reduced.Of course, we were still operating under the assumption that two oceans protected us from many of the realities of the world at large, and if some (Ed included, I assume) chose to ignore the obvious threat of the three terrorist attacks Ed lists, then the world was a very kind and peaceful place.The 9/10 world was a world in which the real measure of our leaders was how narrowly they parsed the phrase “tax cut” or how delicately they balanced science and the ethics of life.And the 9/10 world was one in which lawyers, not soldiers, made important national security decisions from safely behind desks.

9/11, of course, changed all that.9/11 was a direct and effective strike at our economy, which caused massive shock waves throughout the markets, driving unemployment up for a time and curtailing economic activity.It also introduced to the lexicon some of the phrases Mr. Quillen lists, along with a few others: vigilance, asymmetrical warfare, and “Religion of Peace.”I, too, was fond of peace and prosperity; however, for my children’s sake, I prefer to deal with reality, and wish our leaders had done that, too.

Of course, in his typical fashion, Mr. Quillen misses the whole point.“9/12” is not used to invoke a date—it is used to invoke a feeling.After the initial shock, Americans rushed to be Americans again, and we saw the world as it actually is.The strike at our innocence made us all recognize again our own exceptionalism and the fact that what brings us together is not an accident of genetics but the result of choices made by either ourselves or someone in our ancestry. It would never have occurred to us to fly any flag other than the American flag that day because all of us e pluribi—Irish, Polish, African, Mexican, Russian, Chinese—were united in the Unum. And we would, for a few days it seems, stop looking at our political adversaries as enemies and recognize that there was a difference between opponents and actual enemies.

Personally, I think the return to a 9/10 mindset happened altogether too quickly and seamlessly.How else do you explain how a soldier who did something really stupid at Abu Graib is serving a 10-year sentence but the mastermind of the murders of thousands around the world is controversially held in a place where he gets 3-square a day properly prepared, has his Koran handed to him by a gloved guard, and knows which way to turn to pray because we’ve painted the compass point on the floor for him? So take comfort, Mr. Quillen—you are well-accompanied in your quest to return to 9/10; let’s just hope there are enough 9/12-ers around to help you when the world comes knocking again.

2010-09-05

A Modest Proposal to save Colorado

Is it not clear by now that Coloradans are getting the short end of the stick in this year's gubernatorial election?

Sure, the Tea Party may have flexed their muscle and caused all of us to tear a hamstring in the process (the occassional problem with "grass roots" is that they don't get their head up enough to see the big picture).

And sure, we probably deserve it if the best people we can find to even run for governor are Scott McInnis and Dan Maes.

But does that mean we really deserve John Hickenlooper? Can we really afford that consequence?